City Hall Blog

Dallas City Council to vote on offering free Wi-Fi at Love Field. But it’s just 30 minutes’ worth.

Back in April Dallas/Fort Worth International broke the good news: Come September 1, via a partnership with AT&T, the airport’s offering free Wi-Fi — at long last. The catch: You have to sit through a 30-second ad for every 40 minutes’ worth of network usage, a small price to pay given the existing deal with T-Mobile.

The city of Dallas, though, isn’t prepared to just give away Wi-Fi access, even as it preps a new-and-improved airport in time for the Wright Amendment’s demise. Oh, there’ll be some free. Just not a whole lot of gratis — 30 minutes’ worth, after you sit through a short ad. After that you’re on your own. Because how else will the city make the $200,000 to $250,00 it expects to pocket through the course of the deal?

The briefing notes: “Across the country, most airports are providing free Wi-Fi service as an amenity for
passengers.” It figures 30 minutes is a good deal, but after that, there will be an “option to pay for subscription for enhanced service.”

Now, there is a chance the freebie offering will make its way ’round the airport: The deal gives the airport’s tenants the option to “provide additional free access in various zones, i.e. in concession spaces.” But that’s still up in the air.

Interestingly, Boingo was just in the news at the end of last week for its acquisition of Cloud 9 Media, which allows users access to free Wi-Fi so long as they’re willing to sit through ads. But as the Houston Chronicle‘s Dwight Silverman noted a couple of days ago, “Don’t expect to see Boingo’s paywall come tumbling down at all 500,000 of its locations. But increasingly, you may find some of them offering free, limited-time access in exchange for watching an ad or taking a survey. Offering a slower-speed free connection is also an option.”